


Aftermath

by Oceanspire



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-24
Updated: 2016-12-24
Packaged: 2018-09-11 15:54:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8997277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oceanspire/pseuds/Oceanspire
Summary: Rebellions are built on hope, and they have provided it.





	

Collapsing on the grainy sands of the beach in a heap of dirt, sweat, and blood causes for all the energy in their veins to die out, weak knees finding solace in the beach. His breathing is ragged, shallow gasps coming from lungs that aren't quite working. Grasping in side in agony, he nearly falls back further on to the floor, almost having to _lay_ there in wait of his demise. 

She reaches out, grounded, to steel him; he manages to lurch forward to sit up, free left hand clawing at the sand to keep his frame steady. 

They look at one another, wordless. All they do is suck in breaths from the humid air, bodies heaving. Jyn could almost _feel_ the remnants of her adrenaline slip from her bones, uncoiling itself from her ribs, aggravating the ache in her leg.

They're both so tired. Life has lead them thus far in its wicked, twisted ways, and it has made them exhausted. 

With wretched claws fate has snapped the strings of their comrades lives. Not only has the air left their lungs, but their personalities have disappeared, their hopes and dreams subjected to the sounds of the wind. Forgotten. Drowned with secrets never told, birthdates never reached. Their families will be hurting.

"You're not the only one that's lost everything." Cassian once told her. He was seething, then. Brown eyes filled with untold stories from his past. He had looked down upon her with loathing (understanding?) that showed him as angry, and hurt. He had lost everything to the war on the horizon.

"Your father would be proud." he tells her now, and they link their hands in silent kinship. She turned her head to the lack of a horizon, for the war was fully upon them. Eyelashes flutter toward the crumbling of the planet which she kneeled on, lips parted breathlessly as she glanced at the spectacle of destruction.

When she looked back at Cassian, he was in pain. His numb hand which once clutched his wound now held her own, and she absentmindedly squeezed it, watery eyes trailing up to meet his. They both bit back tears, despite the _peace_ that flanked them, so different from the chaos of the battlefront from mere moments before. There was nothing to match the brawl they priorly faced.

Together, they observed the very earth be torn open by the will of fate. Yet, they themselves couldn't be more at peace.

The vision of oranges and yellows painted on a canvas of hurtling rock reminded him of a sunset, and Cassian pondered such, breath easing only momentarily. The tropical landscape around them began to quake from the force of the Death Star's power, and if Jyn looked up to her right, she could see the weapon, a looming threat in the sky. She didn't. She turned and broke her hand free from Cassian, wrapping her arms around him in an embrace he easily returned.

He was shaking. She was shaking. There was trepidation still lingering in the back of their minds, but their fate was sealed nonetheless. Hopelessness settled its way in the depths of her heart, though she suddenly tore it out. Their battle was not lost. While she could feel her shirt being soaked with Cassian's blood, they still reigned victorious.

In a hiccup that was close to a sob, they each took in a final breath, pressing closer to one another. He smelt of grime and sweat, the metallic tang of copper mixed in with seawater. She wasn't any better. She cherished it, regardless, and cherished him just the same for being there with her.

They were together because the Force had willed it, fate has intervened. Because they had nothing from their pasts, but nothing held them back. Cassian and Jyn had been tired all their lives, yet they still fought, ran, lived, _lived._ They fought for the _lives_ of those less tired. It was noble.

The thought of everlasting rest comforted them. She decides in that moment that she wouldn't have wanted to die for anything else.

The idea that the war which had just begun, spreading in comparison of the shrinkage of the land in front of them, the war that had taken everything from them could be won by the right side, it soothed them.

Her lips almost draw into a smile as the world around them fades into a white light, the roar of devastation filling her ears.

Hope surfaces where they shall be buried, Jyn and Cassian know. It's what rebellions are built on, and they are rebels just as anyone else.

"Welcome home." Cassian once said to her, a smile dancing on his lips.

And home she is.


End file.
